After the End: Serenity

Serenity was familiar with the method, of course; everyone who’d ever tried to convince someone to choose the “right” choice was. If you give a list of options, people are far more likely to pick something off the list than come up with something out of nowhere. If the list is a range with benefits and drawbacks, most of the time people will pick something in the middle.

The really cheap sweatshirt isn’t very warm and doesn’t look that good. The really nice plush one is really expensive. The one in the middle is warm enough and looks nice while being a lot more affordable than the expensive one. Yes, some people would pick cheap if they didn’t care as much about warm or didn’t want to afford it, while others wanted the best no matter what it cost. Those people made the two on the ends worth having at least some of. It was the ones in the middle that tended to do the best, especially if the cheap one was really obviously bad quality and the expensive one was really really expensive. Then it was just the illusion of choice.

That was more or less what Blaze had done; Serenity could spend time to find the right people or he could go after the people he knew about; how much time he spent would directly affect his chances to actually remove the real threat, but at the same time the longer he took, the more of a chance there was for them to act against him again or figure out what he was doing and counter it.

Serenity knew Blaze wasn’t doing it just to push him into his desired choice; he could have simply presented the plan, after all, and Serenity would almost certainly have gone along with it happily. Instead, Blaze was giving him the full range of options and thereby telling him what the tradeoffs were. That had quite a bit of value, too; after all, Serenity might well decide that dealing with the situation quickly was worth possibly not getting everyone who was involved.That was sort of like deciding that the cheap sweater was good enough for the family dog, even if he didn’t want to wear it himself. The added benefit of deterrence from proving his strength was a plus, as well, as long as it didn’t trigger someone into specifically coming after him for revenge.

Also, he’d gotten off into really odd territory for the analogy. He’d never bought a sweater for his dog. He didn’t even have a dog right now; he had two cats and neither of them needed a sweater.

Blaze shook his head with a grin. “The second option isn’t perfect, but I do think it’s better than the other two. I haven’t managed to get anyone inside the Memories’ courts yet, that would take years, but they do hire servants regularly. We were a little lucky; they happened to need an errand boy, someone to get things from the town and other places on the Mound. I mostly get things for the kitchens, but I can go almost anywhere and no one will notice. I can’t disguise you as one of us, but I can bring you in as someone I was told to fetch, even if no one actually sent for you. Most people wonky question me; I’m beneath their notice.”

Serenity nodded. That wasn’t that unusual, especially in places that weren’t at war. There was no particular reason for the people on the Mound to be security-conscious, so most people would assume that if you looked like you belonged and knew what you were doing, you were supposed to be there. It wasn’t a perfect defense, since there probably were people who knew what Blaze was supposed to be doing, but Serenity was certain Blaze knew how to avoid them.

“Are there any magical wards?” Serenity didn’t really expect any; warding an area that many people had to pass in and out of regularly was a pain. Even things like city walls had wards that were disabled when the gates were open, at least at the gates themselves. Any wards that were active at a major entrance had to be very general.

Blaze grinned. “There are, but they’re looking for a sigil, not specific people. If you’re with me, the gate will know I’m authorized and let you through as well. It’s one of the easiest types to get past.”

It was probably easier for Blaze than it was for Serenity, since Blaze had skills Serenity didn’t. Even so, he knew several easy ways to get past it; the simplest was to steal a sigil. Of course, that was why many places used sigils that were keyed to the person, but would they have bothered for a servant that they might not keep for very long?

That was something Serenity would have had to investigate if he planned to break in without Blaze, but it wasn’t something he needed to worry about here. If the sigil required keying, that was already done.

“So what are we going to do once I’m inside?” Serenity still wasn’t clear how this plan was different from “challenge them and kill them.” So far it sounded a lot like the same thing except less open.

Blaze winked at Serenity and said a word Serenity hadn’t realized he really didn’t want to hear until that moment. “Politics. Specifically, we’re going to take advantage of the conflicts between the Memories. The Memory of Blood is the effective leader, even though they’re all supposedly equal. The fact that he took over from the Memory of Light after Morgan turned her coat means that this is important to him, but the Memories of Breath and Mastery do not seem to be involved. More importantly, they are not as closely aligned with the Memory of Blood and the Memory of Light is. In fact, it’s fairly clear that the Memory of Mastery wishes to claim the primary position.”

Serenity had no idea how Blaze gained that information in the miniscule amount of time he’d had. Somehow, Blaze found a near-perfect way to infiltrate and determined the local political situation in less time than most people would need to find any sort of position at all.

Serenity shook his head in amazement. “Okay, so while they may know about the attacks on Rissa, they may or may not be involved and you’re pretty sure no one else is behind it. Why shouldn’t we just go with the challenge plan? It sounds like you’ve already got it figured out.”

Blaze shook his head. “Two reasons. No, three. I’m basing my assessment that Breath and Mastery aren’t involved on the political situation, not on actual knowledge. The potions Ida had the group use to hide from Rissa’s foresight were provided to her by the Memory of Blood, but she likely got them from the Memory of Mastery. That doesn’t necessarily mean she knew what they were for, but she might.”

Serenity nodded; he could see the connection there. It was a minor point, in many ways, but it was still there.

“Second, working with the other Memories means you won’t be alone. It should be easier. That’s the least important point; I’m confident you could manage two Memories if you needed to.” Blaze took a deep breath before he continued. “The third reason is the important one: it means the other Memories are obviously responsible for the coup. You’re just an unimportant mercenary, not someone anyone is going to think twice about following for revenge. Well, not many people, at least.”

Oh. Yeah, that was a fairly important reason, wasn’t it? Serenity knew this wasn’t equivalent to the fights he’d had as the Final Reaper, especially since it seemed that the Mimir were behind some of the animosity he gained then, but that didn’t change the emotional impact. “You had to say it that way, didn’t you?”

Blaze shrugged. “It made the point. I can’t guarantee anything, but keeping your involvement hidden behind someone with a grievance should help. The trick will be getting their attention without making it too obvious to anyone else. Memory of Mastery is the one with the true grievance against the Memory of Blood, but that means approaching him directly is completely out of the question, even if his involvement wasn’t questionable. That means we need to approach the Memory of Breath.”

Blaze paused as if he expected Serenity to ask a question. When Serenity kept quiet, he continued. “There’s a fairly simple way to do that, if you can get into the Mound; the Memories have a common throne room. If you approach through the Steps of Destiny, you can lay a matter before the memories. Once upon a time, that meant it would be before all four Memories, but there’s nothing that says it has to be; it’s a historical right that existed before the Mound was closed to the general population. These days, it’s only used by the residents of the Mounds, and that usually means they’re approaching their own Memory during the time that Memory uses the throne room. Outsiders still face all four, but very few outsiders actually come before the Memories of the Mimir.”

Serenity blinked. He thought he’d heard that properly, but it seemed more direct than he expected. “You want me to approach the Memory of Breath and tell him that I have a grievance against the Memories of Blood and Light so that he’ll put me in contact with the Memory of Mastery who will hire me as a mercenary?”

Blaze flinched slightly, then nodded. “More or less. There are some details, but that’s the general outline. Anything after that will have to depend on how the initial approach goes. This approach will make the clandestine one far more difficult but it won’t block the challenge option at all; in fact, it may make it easier. At a minimum, we should find out if any of the other Memories need to be on your list.”

That seemed reasonable enough; Serenity was certain Blaze had already worked out the details he hadn’t yet mentioned. Serenity was also certain he wasn’t going to enjoy some of them. “Sounds like the plan to start with, then. One question, though. Why are they called the Memories of Blood, Light, Breath, and Mastery? It seems like an odd collection.”

Blaze laughed and seemed to relax at the question. “It is. There were once a lot more Memories, but the number declined with time. Since the current Memory of Blood rose to power, there have only been four. That’s supposed to be one of the reasons the Memories of Breath and Mastery are wary of him; they’re worried he might try to take their power away and move it under his aegis.”

Serenity nodded. He was familiar with the way power could consolidate over time. It could go either way, really, but there was nothing surprising about infighting resulting in fewer top positions.

“Supposedly, the Memories are the categories that people fall into. Light is the most obvious; most of the seers are under the Memory of Light, though all of the Memories have some seers and are seers themselves. Blood is anything to do with fighting, including assassination. What mundane spying they have that isn’t on each other also seems to be under the Memory of Blood, but as far as I can tell most of their intelligence gathering comes from the seers.”

“That explains why Blood and Light work together.” Serenity paused, then frowned. “Though it would also explain why they might be at odds; wouldn’t they fight over who has that responsibility?”

Blaze shrugged. “Not these two, apparently; that’s Mastery and Breath. Mastery is supposed to be the skilled trades, while Breath is everything that keeps people alive. There’s a lot of overlap there, obviously, and they’re always fighting over who has what. That’s probably how Blood managed to get the leadership position, even if no one says that.”

Blaze paused, then nodded to himself. “Oh, one more thing: the name the Memory of Blood goes by is Eternus.”

Serenity blinked. The last time he’d heard that name, it was the delving name of that hopeless group on Earth, the one that Death brought to him when they defected to her. The group that held the Valkyrie who originally attacked Rissa then regretted it.